China is damming a waterway in its northeast in an effort to reduce the impact of a river-borne toxic spill flowing towards a city in Russia's Far East, the government said Saturday.Work began Friday to dam the waterway along the Heilong River, which is carrying the spill toward Khabarovsk, a city of 480,000 people, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The waterway links the Heilong to the Wusuli River, which also supplies water to Khabarovsk, and authorities hope to shield it from pollution.The dam is the latest Chinese effort to repair strains with Russia over the slick caused by a November 13 chemical plant explosion that already has disrupted water supplies to millions of people in China.... http://www.cnn.com

A former FBI informant who was arrested in 2003 and accused of being a double agent for China, was sentenced to probation on Friday after pleading guilty to reduced charges. In a low-key conclusion to a case that began as a secretive prosecution of a supposed spy, Katrina Leung admitted lying about an 18-year affair with her FBI handler and admitted she failed to report on her taxes $35,000 in FBI payments and $16,000 in rental income from a California property.Leung, 51, was sentenced to three years probation and agreed to debrief the FBI. She was barred from disclosing classified information."I pleaded guilty today because I wanted to put this behind me and move forward," Leung told reporters. "It's great to be an American because I love America. I love the American values and I love my fellow Americans."...http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051217/ts_nm/crime_leung_dc

A Chinese official who ordered a murderous attack on village protesters was put on trial yesterday in the latest effort by Beijing to address the grievances of the country's vast rural population.He Feng, former Communist party secretary of Dingzhou city, in Hebei province, is one of 27 defendants in the dock over last summer's armed assault by hired thugs on peasants demonstrating against the seizure of land for a power station. Six people were killed in the gun and knife fight outside Shengyou village, which was secretly filmed. Video of the clashes was leaked to the media.Despite a history of cover-ups, the central government was forced to fire Mr He and several other local officials who were accused of collaborating with the power company to hire a 300-strong gang who tried to disperse the protesters....http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,1669443,00.html

Hamas extended big local election gains from the fractured ruling Fatah party on Friday, buoying the Islamic militant group ahead of a Palestinian parliamentary election next month. Israel said that if Hamas achieved political dominance it would spell an end to all hopes for peace talks because the group is sworn to destroying the Jewish state. Hamas appeared to profit in the West Bank municipal poll from disarray in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, which is struggling to heal a rift between an old guard and younger members. Hamas has won growing support from Palestinians who see it as less tainted by corruption than Fatah and appreciate the faction's charity network as well as its fight against Israel with suicide bombings and rocket attacks. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1415274

President George W Bush insists he has not compromised civil liberties, after it was alleged he authorised people in the US to be bugged without a warrant. A storm of protest erupted after the New York Times said the National Security Agency (NSA) was allowed to eavesdrop on hundreds of people. Senators from both sides called for an explanation and investigation. Mr Bush refused to confirm or deny the claims, but said he always upheld the law and protected civil liberties. The president said he would not discuss ongoing intelligence operations. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4536838.stm

The Senate on Fri refused to reauthorize major portions of the USA Patriot Act after critics complained they infringed too much on Americans' privacy and liberty, dealing a huge defeat to the Bush administration and Republican leaders. In a crucial vote early Fri the bill's Senate supporters were not able to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster by Sens. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and their allies. The final vote was 52-47. Bush, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Republicans congressional leaders had lobbied fiercely to make most of the expiring Patriot Act provisions permanent. They also supported new safeguards and expiration dates to the act's 2 most controversial parts: authorization for roving wiretaps, which allow investigators to monitor multiple devices to keep a target from evading detection by switching phones or computers; and secret warrants for books, records and other items from businesses, hospitals and organizations such as libraries...http://www.thewmurchannel.com/news/5553503/detail.html